Mental Health in the Digital Age: Grave Dangers, Great Promise

The Internet and related technologies have reconfigured every aspect of life, including mental health. Although the negative and positive effects of digital technology on mental health have been debated, all too often this has been done with much passion and few or no supporting data. In Mental Health in the Digital Age, Elias Aboujaoude and Vladan Starcevic have edited a book that brings together distinguished experts from around the world to review the evidence relating to this area.

The first part of the book addresses threats resulting from the growing reliance on, and misuse of, digital technology; it also looks at how some problematic behaviors and forms of psychopathology have been shaped by this technology. This section reviews problematic Internet and video game use, effects of violent video games on the levels of aggression and of online searches for health-related information on the levels of health anxiety, use of digital technology to harm other people, and promotion of suicide on the Internet.

The second part of Mental Health in the Digital Age examines the ways in which digital technology has boosted efforts to help people with mental health problems. These include the use of computers, the Internet, and mobile phones to educate and provide information necessary for psychiatric treatment and to produce programs for psychological therapy, as well as use of electronic mental health records to improve care.

Mental Health in the Digital Age is a unique and timely book because it examines comprehensively an intersection between digital technology and mental health and provides a state-of-the-art, evidence-based, and well-balanced look at the field. The book is a valuable resource and guide to an area often shrouded in controversy, as it is a work of critical thinking that separates the hype from the facts and offers data-driven conclusions. It is of interest particularly to mental health professionals, but also to general audience.

Table of Contents

Section I Challenges
Chapter 1 Problematic Internet Use: An Overview by Aviv Weinstein and Elias Aboujaoude
Chapter 2 An Overview of Problematic Gaming by Mark D. Griffiths, Orsolya Király, Halley M. Pontes, and Zsolt Demetrovics
Chapter 3 Assessment of Problematic Internet Use and Online Video Gaming by Orsolya Király, Katalin Nagygyörgy, Beatrix Koronczai, Mark D. Griffiths, and Zsolt Demetrovics
Chapter 4 Neurobiological Aspects of Problematic Internet and Video Game Use by Sun Mi Kim and Doug Hyun Han
Chapter 5 Video Game Violence and Offline Aggression by Christopher L. Groves and Craig A. Anderson
Chapter 6 Cyberchondria: An Old Phenomenon in a New Guise? by Vladan Starcevic and David Berle
Chapter 7 Cyberbullying: A Mental Health Perspective by Matthew W. Savage, Sarah E. Jones, and Robert S. Tokunaga
Chapter 8 Life Versus Death: The Suicidal Mind, Online by Keith M. Harris

Section II Opportunities
Chapter 9 Psychoeducation and the Internet by Nicola J. Reavley and Anthony F. Jorm
Chapter 10 Internet-Based Psychotherapy by Gerhard Andersson
Chapter 11 Software-Based Psychotherapy: The Example of Computerized Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy by Lina Gega and Simon Gilbody
Chapter 12 Virtual Reality in Exposure Therapy: The Next Frontier by Eric Malbos
Chapter 13 Mobile Therapy: An Overview of Mobile Device–Assisted Psychological Therapy and Prevention of Mental Health Problems by Sylvia Kauer and Sophie C. Reid
Chapter 14 Electronic Mental Health Records in the United States: Promise and Pitfalls by David J. Peterson and Jeffrey G. Miller